


The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden

by middlemarch



Category: A Discovery of Witches (TV), All Souls Trilogy - Deborah Harkness
Genre: Aunt-Niece Relationship, Conversations, F/M, Family, Scents & Smells, Suspicions, Vampires, Vignette, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 08:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20468246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: During the six days before they left Madison for the past, Matthew began to understand.





	The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden

“Diana is a grown woman and she makes her own decisions, I know that,” Sarah said, leaning back against the range, holding a mug painted to look like a cauldron. The steam rose, curling like her loosely pinned back hair. She smelled of ripe muskmelon, beeswax, Piguet’s Fracas; the last was her actual perfume, completely unanticipated, so rich, so sweet. “I need you to tell me something anyway.”

“Perhaps you could clarify what you mean,” Matthew said formally. It was her house and he was a guest, before anything else. No matter what Diana said.

“Tell me something reassuring about yourself. She says you’re fifteen hundred years old. Tell me something to put my mind at ease about a vampire who loves a witch,” Sarah said simply. Em had welcomed him and so had the house but in this moment, he respected Sarah more than anyone else, because she feared him and despised the creature he was and had asked him a question. There was a look of Diana about her eyes or rather, he suddenly saw how Diana’s blue eyes were like her aunt’s, where her courage came from.

“She will always come first with me,” he said.

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Sarah replied, setting down the little cauldron. “I know you love her. I want to know who you are, what your love means.” Matthew thought for a long moment, the space of time of his heart-beat. 

“I wrote a book, a collection of sonnets. They were terrible, they made Kit Marlowe laugh until he cried. Then I planted a rose garden, one I’ve been tending for four hundred years, give or take. The current queen bee is called Miranda Quartorze,” Matthew said. 

“Are any of the roses red?” Sarah asked. She meant, _how much can you resist blood?_ Matthew was glad he could tell the truth.

“No.” Sarah looked at him and he wondered if it were true, that some witches could cast a spell without uttering a word. Diana was waking up, he could hear her, her soft exhalation at the sunlight. There wasn’t much time left.

“In the sitting-room, ask the house to show you the family album. There are pictures of Diana in it, from when she was a little girl. You should know what she looked like.”

“So I understand her?”

“So you recognize your future,” Sarah said. He would have asked another question or thanked her, except that he heard Diana calling his name _Matthieu Matthew_, her contralto echoing through the farmhouse.

“She wants you,” Sarah said. “Goddess help you both.”

**Author's Note:**

> That six day window is probably the easiest time-setting for fanfic and the Matthew-Sarah dynamic is certainly worth a second look.
> 
> The title is Sir Thomas More.


End file.
